Global gas market to boom

Geoff has been working for the QT since August 2011 covering Ipswich’s rural areas. He started working for APN in January 2010 with the Chinchilla News in western Queensland after growing up on a grain farm. Geoff spends his time out of work watching far too much sport following the Reds, the Broncos and various American teams.

GAS is set to become the next big international fuel and southern Queensland is set to be part of it.

The International Energy Agency's 2014 World Energy Outlook, released this week, predicts by 2040 gas will have caught coal as the second most used fossil fuel - behind only oil.

The report says "unconventional gas", which coal seam gas is considered, will have an "increasingly important role" and will become 31% of the global gas market.

Santos, which operates CSG fields around Roma, said the growth would be to Queensland's advantage.

A Santos spokeswoman said population booms in Asia would drive demand for southern Queensland gas for decades.

"We've known for a long time that demand for gas in Asia would remain strong for the long-term. In fact, urbanisation is seeing the equivalent of 10 cities the size of Brisbane being created in Asia each year," she said.

"Queensland is at the forefront of meeting that demand and will continue to reap the benefits of the billions of dollars being invested in the LNG industry for decades to come.

"Santos GLNG alone will provide 9% of the entire gas requirements of South Korea, and 11% of Malaysia's."

However, anti-gas advocate Drew Hutton said proponents' beliefs more gas would reduce greenhouse emissions was mistaken.

"Unconventional gas does not have the potential benefits its proponents believe," he said.

"Gas is the last desperate attempt to maintain the fossil fuel era.

"Instead of the investment we see in that, we should just be seeing investment in renewables that the IEA says are going to become more important part of the global energy mix."

The report said China would eclipse Europe as the world's biggest gas using nation by 2030.